Creating a School for Yourself is Really Helpful

I have written this as a comment on a few other posts, but I wanted to make a post about it because it is so helpful, and I am not sure if many people know you can do this. This is a tip I came across in the French sticky but it works for all languages from English!

“How can I see all the Tips & Notes? Create a French classroom on Duolingo Schools and you can see all the notes there. Please don't post these notes on any other websites.”

When I first read this I wasn’t sure what it meant but I thought I would try it. I went to the schools tab, (it’s a bit hard to spot, you will need to go to your ‘home’ page.. then scroll to the very very bottom of the page, which is in grey. It is in tiny grey writting beside help and about) created a school,and was surprised to discover I could create different classrooms for each language. It took three seconds. I opened a classroom for each language I am studying (gave them fun names) I didn’t enroll any students, I skipped that step, but you could probably enroll yourself as a student. Edit: If you do enroll yourself as a student, make sure you first enable discussions etc. in the settings BEFORE before completing the registration process, as otherwise you might accidentally lock yourself out discussions, assignments and other in your regular browser account. Also, if you do the lessons through the schools they might replace your strength bar with assignment, but, if you remove yourself from the classroom it will return to normal.

I have a classroom for each language. In each classroom I can see ALL the tips and notes for the WHOLE course, compiled under simple headings. I can look at tips and notes for lessons I haven’t done yet. I can see word lists for each unit, even for languages like Irish, that don’t have word lists on the browser.

I can look at the tips and notes, for any lesson at any time no matter what lesson I am currently doing. (Super helpful!)

Do I do the lessons through the school? No. I probably could if I wanted to. I could probably even enroll myself as a student in my classrooms and assign myself homework if I was super keen. I do all my practice regularly on the browser/app and I keep my school open in another window for quick easy reference.

Am I a teacher? No

How long does it take to create a school?
3 minutes... and an extra 10 to think up cool names for your classrooms.

I am sharing this info because I don’t think it is common knowledge and would never have thought of it if I hadn’t happened across the french sticky.

I hope this helps someone out. It helps me alot!!!

January 4, 2018

16 Comments

Warning: I haven't been putting myself in the classroom though, as the assignments feature replaced the XP graph bit on the homepage. (Or it did when I tried it a year ago) Note: I removed myself from the classroom and it came back.

just enable everything in the settings before adding students, especially yourself. I posted under another post here in this discussion on how I locked myself out of assigning work or accessing discussions.. LOL

But when I tried it, a while ago now, my XP graph disappeared by just being in a classroom. It was replaced by a box for assignments. This isn't controlled by those settings. If this happens to anybody, just leave your classroom. (Though Duolingo may have changed how it works by now.)

If you sign yourself up as a student of yourself, you can receive weekly progress reports detailing all of the lessons you have studied during the week. (I think this is still working, although I have not received a report for 2 weeks--Xmas break?)

On my browser from my homescreen on duolingo it is at the very bottom, in the grey small print, besides help and about. It’s a bit hard to notice, you have to scroll to the very bottom of the page and I can only see the schools tab from my ‘homescreen’ / practice screen and not the discussions page for some reason.

I opened classrooms for all the courses I am working on (including reverse tree) without completing the full registration, while also not adding myself as a student. I like how I can access all the tips and notes, and the word list is there too in the curriculum tab. Also the start sample lesson button is good to have if I want to do simple revision or earn extra XPs. So convenient! Something I noticed is that the example sentences audio does not work for all the classrooms I have opened. Small issue but everything else is good.

I will definitely use this from now on and for future courses.

One thing I was curious about was whether I could open a classroom for a course I am not taking, and to see the curriculum as a supplement for another course. It is possible. So while I am learning French from Spanish, and I have opened a learning French for Spanish speakers classroom; I also opened a classroom for learning French for English speakers (a course I am not taking) to see the curriculum there and it works just fine.

Glad you found this helpful! It is nice to be able to take a look at a course without needing to do all the lessons. It might be helpful in trying to decide what to study next. For some reason I was not able to open a class for any reverse trees I am doing, but now that I know it’s possible I am going to try again, so thank you too! I think I will also take a peak at the Japanese course to see if I want to start it.